Massive Fire in Rohingya Refugee Camp in Bangladesh Leaves 1000s Homeless
No casualties have been reported so far, but the fire destroyed about 1,200 houses in the refugee camp.
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A Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh caught fire on Sunday, 10 January, leaving thousands homeless.
Kamran Hossain, a spokesman for the security team of the camp said that "about 1,200 houses were burnt in the fire."
The fire engulfed Camp 16 in Cox's Bazar, a border district which is now the residence of more than a million Rohingya Muslims who fled Myanmar after a brutal 2017 campaign carried out by the Tatmadaw, the Burmese military.
A Bangladesh government official, who is in charge of the well being of the Rohingya refugees, said that fire had been doused as quickly as it was possible.
No casualties have been reported so far.
The cause of the fire is also yet to be ascertained.
Abdur Rashid, one of the inhabitants of the now destroyed camp, said that he lost everything in the fire.
"I saved 30,000 taka [US$350] from working as a day labourer. The money was burnt in the fire. I am now under open sky. I lost my dream," he said, as quoted in The Guardian.
These refugees now have nowhere to go. They are especially unwilling to go back to Myanmar, out of fear of further persecution.
Zeid Raad Al Hussein who held the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights between 2014 and 2018, has referred to Myanmar's persecution against the Rohingyas as a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing".
The Burmese government, however, has denied any wrongdoing.
(With inputs from The Guardian)
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